Information is power, or so they say. While that particular cliché may be open
to debate, information is certainly knowledge and since the advent of the
internet, there’s been a wealth of knowledge at people’s fingertips. The
downside of this unprecedented informational accessibility is that all too
often, there’s also a wealth of disinformation at people’s fingertips, with
conflicting and downright inaccurate information being just as readily available
as the accurate. Perhaps one of the most perplexing subjects related to this,
from a Byrds’ fan’s point of view, is the quest for reliable information
concerning the remastering and more specifically, the remixing, of the 1996 -
2000 re-releases of The Byrds’ Columbia Records back catalogue.

As most
of you reading this article will no doubt be aware, all eleven of The Byrds’
studio albums were remastered and re-released between 1996 and 2000, with the
addition of many bonus tracks. The remastering of these CDs was overseen by Bob
Irwin and Vic Anesini. The first thing I should make clear is that, although the
remastered CDs all state in their booklets that they were produced, mixed and
mastered by Bob Irwin and Vic Anesini, for the most part, this refers only to
the bonus tracks on each album and not to the main albums themselves. What I’m
primarily interested in and what this article hopes to address, is the amount of
remixing that has been carried out on the tracks that make up the original
albums.

There’s
an abundance of conflicting information out there about exactly which of the
original albums were remixed and which were simply remastered. To be clear about
this and for those of you who perhaps find the terms “remastered” and “remixed”
confusing, let me give you a concise, layman’s-style explanation of exactly what
each term means.

When an
audio engineer digitally remasters a vintage album, what they’re essentially
doing is fine tuning the master-tapes and bringing out the full sonic richness
of the music through the judicious use of graphic equalising tools, noise
reduction and dynamic range compression (amongst other
processes). In the remastering process, the individual
levels (or volume, if you will) of the instruments and vocals aren’t changed at
all…at least, not in real terms. However, due to the fact that the remastering
process often changes the clarity, equalization and overall compression of the
recordings, it may appear to the listener as if the levels of the vocals and
instruments have altered somewhat, but in real terms, the master recording
remains exactly as it always was.

Remixing, on the other hand, is a much more invasive procedure because it
usually means that the audio engineer supervising the remix has gone back to the
original multi-track master tapes and created a new, modern mix of the album.
That is to say, that they have arranged the levels (or volume) of the individual
instruments and voices, in a new way, relative to each other. In addition, a
remix will often have new audio effects, such as reverb, echo, and compression
etc, added to the mix by the audio engineer. Of the two processes, remixing is
usually by far the most invasive and the one that is most likely to “jump out”
at listeners who are familiar with the way the original vintage recording
sounded.

Phew!
OK, now we’ve got that rather simplistic explanation of remixing and remastering
out of the way, we can begin discussing the specifics of The Byrds’ remastered
CDs. When the first batch of remasters appeared in 1996, Bob Irwin explained in
issue #108 of ICE Magazine that the first four Byrds albums (Mr. Tambourine
Man through to Younger Than Yesterday) had been all been remixed as
well as remastered and he also explained why…

“The
first four Byrds albums had sold so well, and the master tapes used so much that
they were at least two, if not three generations down from the original. In most
cases, a first-generation master no longer existed. They were basically played
to death; they were worn out, there was nothing left of them.”

BOB IRWIN

Irwin
went on to further explain…

“Each
album is taken from the original multi-tracks, where they exist, which is in 95%
of the cases. We remixed them exactly as they were, without taking any
liberties, except for the occasional song appearing in stereo for the first
time.”

Straight
forward enough, eh? Well, not really because at the time these comments were
first published, only the first four Byrds albums had been remastered. Since
then, the remaining seven Byrds’ albums have also been re-issued and there are
many fans who have wondered about these later remasters (The Notorious Byrd
Brothers through to Farther Along) and whether or not they too were
remixed. Some folks maintain that it was only the first four albums that were
remixed, with the rest of The Byrds’ albums still featuring their original
vintage 1960s or 1970s mixes. Other people have suggested that both The
Notorious Byrd Brothers and Dr. Byrds & Mr Hyde have also been
remixed and some other folks are convinced that all eleven of The Byrds’
Columbia albums were remixed for their remastered re-releases.

Of
course, like any debate amongst passionate fans, there’s been a lot of guess
work involved, a lot of erroneous information presented as fact and
unfortunately, a lot of rubbish talked in the process. So, as a dedicated
Byrdmaniac myself, I decided that I wanted to get to the bottom of the matter
once and for all. With this in mind, I contacted Bob Irwin himself to get a
definitive answer, straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. Below are
extracts from our e-mail conversation.

PK:
“There seems to be a lot of conflicting information available on the internet
regarding how many of The Byrds’ albums were remixed when they were reissued in
their remastered form. My understanding is that the first four albums (Mr.
Tambourine Man through to Younger Than Yesterday) were remixed by
yourself and Vic Anesini due to the fact that a "first-generation master no
longer existed", to quote an interview with you in ICE Magazine back in 1996.
Can you confirm this?”

Bob
Irwin: “Only part of the Tambourine Man and Turn,
Turn, Turn albums were mixed. They were "mixed" by me from the three-track
reduction masters, with ALL original processing - compression, eq, reverb ,
etc., PRINTED TO TAPE. No liberties taken, none needed. Same for a third of
Fifth Dimension, because of oxide loss problems. Lastly, only three songs on
Younger Than Yesterday were remixed, because of the same oxide issues.”

PK:
“It also sounds, to my ears at least, as if The Notorious Byrd Brothers
has been remixed too, but how many of the other albums were also remixed? I had
always assumed that the remaining albums (Sweetheart Of The Rodeo through
to Farther Along) were simply remastered from the original, vintage
first-generation master tapes, rather than having new modern remixes done for
them. However, recently I've read online that Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde was
also remixed before it was remastered. Is this true? Or am I totally mistaken
and, in fact, all of the Byrds albums were remixed for these remasters?”

Bob
Irwin: “Nothing at all (other than the bonus cuts)
was mixed or remixed on Notorious, Sweetheart, or any of the other Byrds
albums.”

BOB IRWIN

So,
there you have it! Unfortunately Bob doesn't state exactly which songs on
Fifth Dimension or Younger Than Yesterday were remixed but he does
make it pretty clear that it was only those first four albums that had remixing
done to them. We can have an educated guess that the three tracks remixed for
Younger Than Yesterday were “Mind Gardens”, “Have You Seen Her Face” and
“Everybody’s Been Burned”, since all three of these songs have a longer running
time than they did on the original album, due to an extended fade-out at the end
of each song. It's also interesting to hear that those first four Byrds albums
weren't actually remixed from scratch, but were in fact remixed using the
original three-track reduction masters, complete with 1960s in-studio processing
and effects already embedded in the tape. Which obviously goes a long way
towards explaining why the remixed tracks sound so similar to the original 1960s
mixes.

Was Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde remixed?

The only
residual mystery left to ponder after speaking with Bob Irwin is whether or not
Dr. Dyrds & Mr. Hyde has undergone any remixing, since some people
maintain that it has. There are undoubtedly some differences, sonically
speaking, between the original LP release of this album and the 1997 remaster.
For one thing, on many parts of the album there is noticeably less reverb (a
studio effect that simulates a large number of echoes) than on producer Bob
Johnston’s original 1969 mix of the album. “Nashville West” is a good example of
this lessening of reverb on the 1997 remaster.

Another
very noticeable difference between the original album and the 1997 remaster is
the inclusion of Gene Parsons’ utterance (at least, it sounds like Gene) of the
word “three” over the very first seconds of the song “This Wheel’s On Fire”.
This is undoubtedly the last part of an in-studio “one-two-three-four” count-in
for the song, with the “four” digit not being spoken because the song had
already started by then. What’s interesting though, from the point of view of
this article, is that this calling out of “three” first appeared on the 1997
remastered CD and is absent from all previous versions of the album or
appearances of the song on compilations. Of course, this utterance of the word
“three” must have always existed on the master tapes, ever since the December 4th,
1968 session in which the song was recorded, but it was obviously edited out of
the original album by producer Bob Johnston. In fact, even when “This Wheel’s On
Fire” was remixed previously by Vic Anesini and Tim Gleelan, for The Byrds’ 1990
box set, this calling out of the word “three” was not present.

An even
more compelling piece of evidence to support the supposition that Dr. Dyrds &
Mr. Hyde was remixed or tampered with in some way, is the version of the
song “Candy” that appears on the 1997 remaster. On the original album the
track’s running time is 3:01 but on the remastered CD its running time has been
expanded to 3:38. The reason for this is due to the song’s guitar solo having
been edited for length on the original version of the album, whereas an unedited
version of the song was used for the remaster.

In his
comments to me, Irwin indicated that the Dr. Dyrds & Mr. Hyde album was
not remixed and yet, a noticeably longer edit of “Candy” was used and the word
“three” has mysteriously appeared in “This Wheel’s On Fire” on the 1997
re-issue. These are both matters of undeniable fact.

Perhaps,
Bob Irwin’s insistence that Dr. Dyrds & Mr. Hyde was not remixed is borne
out of a forgetfulness on his part, as a result of the passage of years, or
perhaps the album was remixed by Vic Anesini alone and Bob Irwin was simply
unaware that any remixing had taken place. Of course, this is all pure
speculation on my part but the evidence gathered from listening to the 1997
remaster of Dr. Dyrds & Mr. Hyde and comparing it to the “pre-remaster”
version does lead one to suspect that some remixing (or studio tinkering) has
indeed taken place. Exactly how much, and to which tracks, we may never know for
certain though.

Conclusions and how to obtain the original unremixed albums.

So, what
are we to deduce from all of this investigation and speculation? Well,
regardless of whether you consider the remixing of vintage albums to be a sort
of historical revisionism or not, the four (or, in all likelihood, five) albums
that were remixed for the Columbia/Legacy remasters series do still sound very
similar to the original albums in most cases. As stated previously, this is
mostly due to the fact that the first four CDs were remixed from the original
three-track reduction masters, with all in-studio processing and effects
embedded on the tape. Whether this also holds true for Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde
is anyone’s guess. With only a third of Fifth Dimension and Younger
Than Yesterday having received the remix treatment anyway, these two
remasterd CDs in particular sound almost identical to the original albums.

However,
Byrds purists will probably still feel the need to own the “pre-remaster”
editions of Mr. Tambourine Man, Turn! Turn! Turn!, Fifth
Dimension, Younger Than Yesterday and Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde.
However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to track down old copies of
the original vinyl LPs. All of The Byrds’ Columbia albums were first issued on
CD in the late 1980s/early 1990s and these original CD reissues contain the
albums in their unaltered, original incarnations. Although these original CD
issues are all long out of print they can still be picked up today for a
reasonable price on eBay or at secondhand record shops and record fairs. In
addition, 2006 saw Sundazed Records reissue the first five Byrds albums in their
original mono incarnations on vinyl and these LPs are sourced from the original,
vintage 1960s mono master tapes, without any remixing having taken place. Of
course, it should be noted that the mono versions do sound somewhat different to
the more well known stereo versions but nonetheless, they are authentic 1960s
versions of the albums. Additionally, the respected audiophile record label
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab reissued the original mono version of Mr.
Tambourine Man (as well as The Notorious Byrd Brothers) on CD in
2006.

So there
you have it! I realise, of course, that many fans of The Byrds simply won’t care
one way or the other about the remixing or remastering of these CDs. After all,
any changes that have been wrought to these albums are pretty minor. However, it
is my hope that this article will lay to rest some of the speculation associated
with these CDs, among those Byrds’ fans who are concerned with the minutiae of
the remastering process. Either way, it’s worth remembering that remixed or not,
The Byrds’ Columbia/Legacy remasters do sound great.

Paul
King.

London,
England.

2009.

Special thanks to Bob Irwin for taking the time to
communicate with me on this subject.